Charles & Edith Hickman

HICKMAN

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 9/21/2010 at 22:56:12

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

Charles A and Edith Fogg Hickman
By Mildred Hickman Stevens

It was in the spring of 1898 that some wag posted the following notice on young Physics Professor Hickman’s bulletin board at Morningside College:

Hickman’s Weather Forecast

10 a.m. – Foggy

2 p.m. – Still Foggy

6 p.m. – Foggier

8 p.m. – Very Foggy

The reason? They young professor, Charles Addison Hickman was dating the pretty, vivacious brunette, Edith Winifred Fogg. On May 28, 1898, they became engaged and on September 5th, 1899, they were married. Of the wedding, the newspaper reported: ‘A very pleasant wedding occurred in Morningside last Tuesday evening, September 5, when Mr Charles A Hickman, a well-known, young business man of this city, was united in marriage to Miss Edith Winifred Fogg, one of Morningside’s favorites. . . Miss Fogg has been a very successful teacher in the Sioux City public schools and has a large circle of friends in the city.’

Charles born in Norwalk, Ohio, on July 11, 1875, had moved to Morningside with his parents, Mary Catherine and the Rev Simeon Martin Hickman, from Cleveland, Ohio, in 1897. He had one brother and two sisters: Wilbur, Charlotte and Minnie. He was a graduate of Case School of Applied Science in Cleveland, with further study at Cornell University in Ithica, New York.

By the time of his marriage, Professor Hickman had left teaching to start his own business, the ‘Electrical Supply Co.’, which he later called the ‘Corn Palace Electric Construction Co.’, and finally the ‘Hickman Electric Co.’ In succession, the business was located at 414 Jackson Street, 519 Fifth Street, and 412 Sixth Street. He owned and managed his company until the time of his death on December 1, 1947.

Edith had been born in Fairfield, Maine, on October 6, 1876, and was the daughter of Dr Elbridge Gerry Fogg and Jenny Adams Fogg. When Edith was about six years old, she moved with her parents and brothers, Leon and Maurice to Wakefield, Nebraska, a pioneer town at that time. Dr Fogg did not live long after the move, but died in 1787. In 1891, Mrs Fogg moved her family to Sioux City. To Morningside, in fact, where Edith was to live for the remainder of her life.

Edith attended the 8th grade at Worcester School; to get to school, she rode the elevated railroad. She was a member of one of the first graduating classes from Central High (1894); she also graduated from the Sioux City Normal School, before teaching for two years as Longfellow School.

Charles was always interested in automobiles and was one of the first Sioux Citians to own one. A newspaper clipped found among his papers reads as follows:
Here is a Northwestern Iowa Horseless Carriage that antedates all reported to Date

The Rear Seat: I had a horseless carriage and drove it in Sioux City in the late fall or the early winter of 1899. It was equipped with a single cylinder, air-cooled French engine, which proved decidedly unsatisfactory. The cylinder got so hot that the engine could not be topped until the gas ran out, and in old-fashioned carburetors this sometimes took considerable time. The vehicle was rebuilt in 1900 and equipped with a marine steam engine and small steam boiler. Before non-condensing, it used to take about a barrel of water to make the ten miles from Morningside to Sergeant Bluffs and back.

C A Hickman

He liked to work on his cars, and his family always maintained that even if a car was working well, he would take it apart to see what made it work! At various times he owned the following makes of cars: Stanley Steamer, an electric car, Pope Toledo, Moon, Briscoe, Chalmers, Model T Ford and Dodge.

Six children were born to this couple: Leon, Wilbur, Mildred, Lois, Alice and Addison. They had eleven grandchildren and fourteen great grandchildren (at this writing).

The family was members of Grace Methodist Church, Edith and Charles having joined in 1897. Charles was member of the Masonic Order and of the Shriners. Both were charter members of the Morningside chapter of Eastern Star. Edith was a charter member of the Sorosis Study Club.

Charles was especially interested in nature; the family camped for several years at Brown’s Lake; in 1917 they built and enjoyed for many years one of the first cottages at Methodist Camp on Lake Okoboji. Edith and Charles were good fisherman, and spent many early morning hours trolling.

Charles was an excellent photographer, and took home movies in the early days of that art. He also was an early day radio enthusiast and built his own sets. He was fond of music. Also interested in Indian artifacts and other Americana, he furnished one of the rooms in their home, after the children had grown, as a private museum.

Edith was an avid reader, a good organizer, and an excellent conversationalist as well as a fine listener. She was especially noted for her penmanship, a vertical, rather than slanted, version of Spencerian; her writing was beautiful and extremely legible. She enjoyed corresponding with friends and continued to write letters even beyond her 100th year. She also occasionally wrote short personal essays for her friends about such subjects as a sunflower, time, or an elegant black dress. She died at the age of 102 on May 28, 1979.

In the first letter of her memoirs, written during her 100th year, in 1976, Edith wrote: ‘I have lived 99 years. Many things have changed since my childhood, but such changes come slowly and are little noticed as we live them. It is when we look back that we realize the differences. However, I think it is important to note that many things remain the same. People continue to have hopes and frustrations, joys and sorrows, and they continue to make their individual lives as constructive and meaningful as possible in the course of their day-by-day living.’